LETTERS: Readers sound off about anthem, politics, tolerance

By Enterprise readers

Published 4:10 am, Sunday, September 25, 2016

CAUSE AND EFFECT

As a former high school football coach and a disabled Vietnam-era veteran, I became extremely angry that any coach would encourage or allow his team to participate in a silent protest of any kind. You don't build character by showing disrespect.

It's no wonder that Beaumont ranks as one of the least safest cities in the U.S. for women.

Last week a letter-writer recommended "Armageddon" by Morris and McGann. It's likely a typical election season hatchet job, a la "A Texan Looks at LBJ." We get political puff piece autobiographies, such as Rick Perry's "Fed Up," or Obama's or Clinton's.

I suggest she read "Dark Money" by Jane Mayer, an exhaustive detailing of how the hard right has been hijacking political discourse for half a century, through funding of foundations, activist groups, "educational" non-profits, PACs, advocacy groups, media outlets - that's where the Tea Party seed money came from.

"The Donald is not perfect by any means," she wrote. Trump rather is not acceptable in any aspect - ethics, morality, temperament, honesty, concern for others. A Trump supporter is not voting for him, but rather for himself, particularly his baser emotions - anger, fear, greed, selfishness, unreasoning chauvinism, violence.

We all have such, which generally we suppress, control through thought. Some such are justifiable, if focused, controlled by thought. Trump gives permission to indulge in these feelings we otherwise would consider shameful.

She might be interested to know that the co-author of Trump's latest has come out against him. He'd be in a position to judge.

Recently an Arab man was shot to death in Oklahoma by his neighbor. The killer was known to police for using ethnic and racial slurs. Similarly, a Muslim Imam and his assistant were killed in New York, which appears to be yet another crime rooted in Islamophobia. Five Dallas police officers were murdered in cold blood, and around the nation unarmed black men are being unjustly killed.

As an Ahmadi Muslim, I am greatly saddened by all the untimely deaths. While I pray for them, I hope that justice is served.

But what has become of our beautiful country? This used to be the land of the free and home of the brave, a place where whether we agreed or not, we defended each other's right to disagree. And now look at what we have become.

I can see the allure of the slogan to "make America great again," because every single one of us wants to bring back that America where peace reigned. And yet the very slogan is spread with divisive rhetoric.

Instead of calling for bans on individuals of entire religions, labeling whole groups and threatening each other, those in positions of influence should call for peace and understanding amongst the various sections of our American society. That's how we can make America great.

Alamzeb Khan, Montgomery

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